The Roman Cavalry: From the First to the Third Century AD

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Cllr Paul Hodgkinson, Cotswold District Council Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Health and Emma Stuart, Corinium Museum Director. Because the Senate was limited to 600 members, equites equo publico, numbering several thousands, greatly outnumbered men of senatorial rank. [48] Even so, senators and equites combined constituted a tiny elite in a citizen-body of about 6 million (in AD 47) and an empire with a total population of 60–70 million. [65] [66] This immensely wealthy elite monopolised political, military and economic power in the empire. It controlled the major offices of state, command of all military units, ownership of a significant proportion of the empire's arable land (e.g., under Nero ( r.54–68AD), half of all land in Africa Proconsularis province was owned by just six senators) and of most major commercial enterprises. [67] Ammianus Marcellinus' works in English at the Tertullian Project with introduction on the manuscripts Supplement your cavalry with their own Roman Cavalry Command, offering equipment options of horn and standard.

A marriage law of 18 BC (the lex Julia) seems to define not only senators but also their descendants unto the third generation (in the male line) as a distinct group. [47] There was thus established a group of men with senatorial rank ( senatorii) wider than just sitting senators ( senatores). Equites Maurorum(Moorish horsemen), though how many units of these fought in their traditional ‘barbaric’ fashion, and how many fought, and dressed, as ‘regular’ auxiliary cavalry is unknown;

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Body Armour: despite this changing several times through the centuries it is accepted that in the later Roman Republic and throughout most of the Roman Empire that bronze breastplates were used. Speidel, Michael P. 1994. Riding for Caesar: The Roman Emperor’s horseguards. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Funditores(slingers) – oddly, no record of any units is known from the Principate, though slingers are depicted on Trajan’s Column; Baumer, C. (2012) The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors, I.B.Tauris, London ISBN 978-1-78076-060-5 a b c McCall, Jeremiah B. (2005-06-29). The Cavalry of the Roman Republic. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-51817-3.

In view of this, it seems clear to me that the auxilia are worthy of further study, and worthy of a more prominent place in our armies of little men. So, let us consider the auxilia, their organisation, and how and why this might be different to the legions. OrganisationLucius Vorenus and Titus Pollo excelled as members of the 11th legion and came to the attention of Caesar when their rivalry came to a head during a battle against the Nervii. Any of these heroes are extremely powerful and provide a powerful boon to your warband. The royal cavalry may have been drawn exclusively from the ranks of the patricians ( patricii), the aristocracy of early Rome, which was purely hereditary, [5] [ full citation needed] although some consider the supporting evidence tenuous. [6] [ full citation needed]. Since the cavalry was probably a patrician preserve, it probably played a critical part in the overthrow of the monarchy. Indeed, Alfoldi suggests that the coup was carried out by the Celeres themselves. [7] [ full citation needed] However, the patrician monopoly on the cavalry seems to have ended by around 400BC, when the 12 centuriae of equites additional to the original six of regal origin were probably formed. Most likely patrician numbers were no longer sufficient to supply the ever-growing needs of the cavalry. It is widely agreed that the new centuriae were open to non-patricians, on the basis of a property rating. [8] Justin Blake: The undoubted highlight from Vindolanda are the amazing writing tablets that we find and these are tiny little postcard sized scraps of birch and alderwood that the Roman soldier have written to each other and further afield with an old fashioned iron pen that they dip into the ink and write straight on top of the bits of wood. It is widely accepted that the Roman monarchy was overthrown by a patrician coup, probably provoked by the Tarquin dynasty's populist policies in favour of the plebeian class. [Note 2] Alfoldi suggests that the coup was carried out by the celeres themselves. [10] According to the Fraccaro interpretation, when the Roman monarchy was replaced with two annually elected praetores (later called "consuls"), the royal army was divided equally between them for campaigning purposes, which, if true, explains why Polybius later said that a legion's cavalry contingent was 300 strong. [11] Although Augustus created regular auxiliaries, irregular allied forces were still used. For example, Marcus Aurelius recruited Sarmatian allied cavalry to be stationed in Britain. By the 4th century, Romans relied heavily on irregular allies from the migrating Germanic tribes and the Huns.